Sofa from a car, table from an engine: how to make money on furniture from auto parts

by Alexey | Vintage Decor Workshop Interior | Friday, January 20, 2017

Many readers of the Make-Self.net are car enthusiasts, some of whom have a passion for vintage cars. Perhaps, in someone’s garage, under a thick layer of dust and a pile of old things, a part of the body of his favorite car or a car that was inherited from relatives lies lonely. If you keep this “hardware” as a memory, then today its dark days in a damp garage will end. We have collected for you 40 furniture masterpieces that were made from old cars. There’s just so much you can’t make out of an old body—from a sofa to a washbasin. Take a look at our selection, it will inspire you...

Sofas from old cars.

Using the front or rear of the car body and the rear seats, you can make similar sofas.

Sofa from a car, table from an engine: how to make money on furniture from auto parts

Mikhail Karavaev and Oleg Kalaev are nuclear physicists by training. They did not find themselves in the profession they received at the university, but they achieved success in a completely different field - in the production of unusual interior items from auto parts. They spotted the idea in the British car show Top Gear - and in a few years they went from handicraft production to a full-fledged workshop with millions in revenue. Co-owner of the Rolling Stol workshop Mikhail Karavaev told the Biz360.ru portal about how to make money on furniture from spare parts.

Dossier

Mikhail Karavaev

, an entrepreneur from Moscow, co-founder of the workshop, which he develops in partnership with
Oleg Kalaev
. Mikhail and Oleg are 30 years old, both majoring in nuclear physics (graduated from Moscow State University). The Rolling Stol workshop was launched in 2016.

How it all began

After graduating from university, I worked for about two years at a large telecommunications company as a manager-engineer. And then I came to the idea that I no longer wanted to be a cog in a machine and work for someone - I wanted to create something of my own.

At that time, I was already doing creative work in my garage in the Moscow region: I made tables and various other interior items from car parts. This idea was not my know-how; I saw the first table made from a motor in the British car TV show Top Gear. But the idea seemed very stylish, brutal and promising to me.

From the very beginning, I knew how to present such things and who would buy it; I had a clear understanding that no one was doing anything similar in our country yet, although there was demand. But at the start I didn’t sell anything, I just gave gifts to friends.

Then I teamed up with my friend and partner Oleg Kalaev - and we rented a garage in Moscow for 5 thousand rubles a month. We launched a simple website for 30 thousand rubles. I understood that I needed to put some kind of portfolio there. Therefore, at first we did several things not to order, but just like that - specifically to fill the site. After all, it’s boring to look only at tables; you need an assortment.

That's why we got a watch made from a clutch basket, some mini-sculptures, lamps, and business card holders made from car pistons. It then became clear that there was a shortage of larger, higher-priced items, and we started designing sofas. The first one was from the body shell of a real 407 Moskvich. Next came models from Mustang and Volga.

I designed the first models myself, my partner Oleg was mainly responsible for other tasks in the project. With each new product it turned out better and better. Three months after the site started operating, the first orders appeared.

Spare parts are in short supply

Our first garage could not boast of either a large area or amenities. At 22.00 the lights went out there, and in winter there was no heating, but somehow they worked.

To start, we only needed hand tools: screwdrivers, jigsaws, grinders. Later, a year later, we began to purchase larger equipment - for example, a welding machine, a compressor, spray guns. They invested money earned from their own orders into the purchase of all this. We didn’t take out loans, so we developed gradually.

Some of the spare parts for the base of our products were literally at hand and were obtained for free. I specifically bought only engine cylinder blocks from car repair shops and car dismantling yards.

However, at the moment, used spare parts are rarely used in our workshop. When we make, say, a sofa in the shape of a Volga body, now there are only headlights from a real car. We make the rest of the parts ourselves: for example, we make the body itself from plastic.

The sales volume of products containing real spare parts is already very small and amounts to about 15%. Now we get the most revenue from things that we make ourselves using molding: sofas, armchairs, bar counters.

First mistakes

We started, as is usually the case, by working with private clients. As our portfolio grew, companies began to reach out. The very first of these was a children's cafe in Astrakhan. The owner found us by directly searching for “sofa from a car.” At the moment when this company contacted us, we had to register an individual entrepreneur. The order was to make 14 automotive style sofas and two decorative gas pumps.

This was our first major project, it cost more than 1 million rubles. And of course, we scored our first big shots on it. Since we had no experience, the entire order was delivered to Astrakhan with damage: at that time we did not know how to properly package our products and organize delivery. But we are talking about a large, fragile load that can be scratched with an ordinary nail and broken with a moderate impact. It was painful and offensive. But I had to go to Astrakhan and personally repair all the damage.

After this project, we understood which parts should be transported in disassembled form and which should not, which need to be additionally sealed, in which case hard sheathing is needed and what protection is required for soft panels.

They also began to pay much more attention to the wear resistance of things, usability, and the ability to replace modules: the client, if necessary, should be able to change this or that part himself in his city. All in all, it was a very valuable first experience.

Then large orders became regular, and among them there were especially interesting ones. For example, we once made a bar counter from a 1972 Volkswagen Transporter bus - that same legendary hippie bus ( see video

). The bus itself has already become a collectible model and can cost 5 million rubles. We can make a bar counter in the form of such a bus. That is, it does not have a roof, and inside, in the driver’s seat, a person prepares drinks. The length of the stand can reach 6 meters. The Lipetsk coffee chain Coffee Way bought this from us.

Garage as a chill-out zone

Now approximately 60% of our revenue comes from the B2B segment, and in terms of the number of orders it is approximately 50%. We decorate cafes and restaurants, client areas of detailing centers, and company offices. We do such projects on a turnkey basis.

We have quite a lot of clients in the regions: cool cafes and detailing centers are opening there. Our products were sent to Krasnodar, the Far East, Khabarovsk, Tyumen, etc. But there are more retail clients mainly in the capital.

The owners of such enterprises are usually men who are impressed by our work style. Many of them decorate their home the same way. Men are also more often present among retail customers. But women also contact us who want to give a gift to a connoisseur of our style.

It is common for wealthy men to have hobbies, and often this is something related to the automobile. In particular, they sometimes create a place to relax in the garage with the help of our interior items. This is no longer a place where you can tinker with your car, but a location where our client combines all his interests, can sit with friends and relax.

Marketing and promotion

In terms of promotion, we try to pay maximum attention to Instagram. We have had an account since the start, now it is there. To recruit them, we held competitions and made barter interactions with bloggers (they, however, in our case were not particularly effective).

We practice targeting, we spend about 4 thousand rubles on it per day - but not every day. We monitor how people react to posts, and if suddenly a post gets more coverage, Instagram reports this and we start promoting it to the right audience.

Lately I’ve been trying to do the same and I can already see that this area has prospects.

We promote the site only through SEO. But due to the fact that our specificity does not have many requests on the Internet, there is always organic traffic on the site.

I have not yet seen enterprises in Russia that would work in exactly the same style and with the same productivity. Apparently, there are no other desperate people who would dare to plunge into this from scratch and go through such a difficult path as we did. I know that there are guys who do cool things in related topics, but still in their own style and in small volumes. And there are dishonest competitors who copy our photos and introduce ourselves to clients with our name, after which they make low-quality copies of our things. True, they do not create any special problems for us.

On your own

We moved several times. Now our project is already a full-fledged small production - just not an assembly line, but a small-scale one. For him, we rented the premises of a former furniture factory - 700 square meters. We moved there in 2018.

We got the site covered in dust, garbage and without electricity. We didn’t do any drastic renovations there, but it still required a lot of work on arrangement. Although we tried to make everything as simple and ergonomic as possible.

The construction was going on for about three months by the team: part of the time was spent on it, part on working on orders, because it was impossible to tell clients that we were undergoing renovations here, so we weren’t working yet. Nevertheless, the revenue dropped for that period, because they physically could not do business to the same extent in parallel with putting the premises into operation.

But today we work in a comfortable space, where there is central heating, a lot of our own equipment, and the workshops are separated by partitions and equipped with hoods.

At the production site there is a metalworking and welding shop, where sparks fly and metal bends. There is an area where we work with wood - a carpentry shop, and also a workshop for preparing products for painting, a painting booth, and a workshop for working with plastic.

There is a separate area for final assembly of products. Recently, a so-called powder chamber has appeared - an area where we use special technologies to paint products with powder. There is also a photo zone where we take pictures of finished items before shipping them to customers. Our office is located on the second floor.

Price issue

We hired our first employees after a year of work. These were specialists who worked on a project basis. Today we employ eleven craftsmen: two welders, a welding engineer, a sculptor, two assemblers, a plastic master, a painter, a seamstress, and there is also a manager and a supplier.

Oleg and I, as leaders of the company, are generally interchangeable. But I am more focused on production and working with clients, and Oleg is more focused on new developments and promotion.

Our products usually cost from 2.5 thousand to 150 thousand rubles. About once every two months there is an order whose cost reaches 500 thousand - for example, a bar counter. And we also have a segment of exclusive products. Among them, say, a table made from a real Ferrari engine, it can cost up to 600 thousand rubles. We also sometimes create complex art objects (for example, decorating an entire floor in a certain style), whose cost can reach up to 800 thousand.

At the moment we have 20-30 orders in progress every month. Each of them can contain several products at once. The monthly turnover of the enterprise is 2-3 million rubles. At the same time, when the turnover is lower, this does not mean that our profit is falling. Our business model takes into account the difference in product margins - because of it, the revenue can be small, but the profit will remain high.

For example, our tables are not particularly profitable. Sofas and armchairs have 20-30% higher margins than them. Therefore, we cannot give our distributors a large discount on the table from the engine, so as not to fall out of our margin level. But the dealer receives a 40% discount on the Volga sofa.

Growth points

Today Rolling Stol cooperates with three dealers on an ongoing basis, one of which is located in Israel. Interaction with them proves to be beneficial. To become such a partner, a person can purchase our products in the amount of 300 thousand rubles or simply post a photo of it on his Internet portal (in this case, we ship products as orders are received). In any case, our distributor must have some kind of sales platform: on the Internet, in a store or in a car dealership.

We primarily see our scaling in expanding our dealer network around the world. There are certain difficulties here: the distributor must be trained, he must have a good understanding of the product, he must be offered individual conditions and some special assortment... Nevertheless, we understand that the more earning dealers we have, the more we will earn.

In addition to working in this direction, this year we also plan to optimize our production through new equipment for the accelerated production of body parts for sofa bodies, as well as for laser cutting. This will allow us to replace some of the manual labor in the workshop with automated labor - and will increase the quality of our goods and production volume.

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biz360

Bed made from car parts.

Also, the bodies of old cars look good as a bed.

Video

True car lovers are able to not only improve the driving characteristics and tuning of their favorite iron horse, but also find useful uses for it after active use. An example is furnishings: beds, tables, armchairs, sofas, shelves, and even mini-offices. Such products will make the interior bright, stylish, and give it a real masculine character. For example, sofas made from a car will fit perfectly into a modern living room, a teenager’s room, an original drive-in cafe, etc.

What can this be made from? The side wings and bumper will serve as an original frame for the furniture. In place of the trunk or hood, a small sofa is most often placed. Some craftsmen decorate the frame with working headlights, which turns the product into a real decoration of the room.

As a rule, the entire structure is attached to a specially made metal base. And by installing furniture roller wheels designed for heavy-weight products, you can make your designer sofa mobile.

Characteristics of polymer foam for making car seats

When making a car seat, it is important to choose the right polymer foam. Foam material should be selected based on comfort, body support and safety. Vibrations occur in a moving car, which the seat must dampen. In most cases, polyurethane foam is used to make the soft part of the seat. This is a fairly accessible and relatively inexpensive material. Polyurethane foam of different densities can be sold from furniture manufacturers or on the Internet.

Let's look at the types of polyurethane foam and their properties.

• Foam density means the same as in other materials, the amount of mass of the material for a certain size or volume. It is commonly believed that foam density refers to how firm it is when pressed, but that is not the only meaning of this characteristic. Density indicates the durability of the foam. High and medium density foams feel the same when you sit on them, but the denser ones will be more durable. Thus, foam density is interrelated with the quality and durability of the product. Density is the most important characteristic when choosing foam. Density measures how little air there is in the foam. Higher-density foam has greater resistance to collapse and subsidence than lower-density, cheaper foam. The higher the density, the more durable the foam material.
• A density between 45 and 75 is considered high density foam and very hard, medium density foam from 25 to 45. If the density is below 25, then it is a soft foam. High-density foam is optimal for use under heavy daily loads.
• For seating, you can also use foam material of different densities for different places. The densest is for the lower part of the seat, since this part takes the greatest pressure, and the less dense is for the back. You can simply use one type of foam (medium or high density) for the entire seat.
• Reducing the foam density or firmness does not make the seat feel more comfortable. Why is this happening? Reducing the firmness and/or thickness of the foam results in higher compression when someone sits on it. If the foam is compressed to more than 40-50% of its original height, the foam compacts too much and feels hard. It's counterintuitive, but the more the foam's firmness is reduced beyond this level, the harder the foam will feel when a person sits on it.
• It is also important to understand that different thicknesses of material will have different effects on weight and pressure. The thickness of the foam will affect the ability to support weight.
• There is also polyurethane memory foam. It contains additives that increase elasticity and density. The memory effect is achieved due to the viscoelasticity of the polymer foam. This property means that the compressed foam takes a long time to return to its original position. Memory foam was developed in 1966 in collaboration with NASA research to improve the safety of airplane seats.

Open or closed cells

Polyurethane foam consists of cells. They can be open or closed. Open cell foam is more common. Cells are open to neighboring cells. Closed cells are not open to neighboring cells. Closed cell foam can float for a long time without sinking and is used on boats and yachts.

Open-cell foam is characterized as a soft material. Air moves easily throughout the material as the foam contracts.

Closed-cell foam is much denser and firmer than open-cell foam. Its air bubbles are completely sealed (closed) from each other. This material generally has a higher compressive strength. Closed cell foam is often used in water equipment because it does not absorb water.

You can buy foam of different thicknesses. One thick layer of foam can be uncomfortable. You can use several layers of foam of different densities (like a sandwich). The bottom layer is the densest foam, then medium density, then a thin layer of soft foam. All layers must be glued together using special glue. This method allows the weight to be distributed more evenly across the seat. It turns out to be an imitation of springs on old soft seats. All layers must be within the thickness of the factory seat.

When making a seat, do not forget about the height of the ceiling in the car and the amount of free space under your head.

Car seat design (design)

You can use a computer to design a car seat. Various design programs are used in the automotive industry: Catia, NX /Unigrafix, Solidworks, ANSYS, LS DYNA, Creo..

For example, the computer program NX (formerly called "Unigraphics"), developed by Siemens PLM Software. A set of applications of the NX CAD software package allows you to develop a layout of the seat and its elements. The NX software package is used by such manufacturers as Mercedes Benz, GM, Jaguar Land rover. Car manufacturers BMW, Volvo, Honda, Audi, Porsche use another program Catia V5.

You can use the program to create a model of a bucket seat, then print it on a scale of 1 to 1 on a plotter in layers (with a distance of 2.5 cm), then draw the contours on 2.5 cm foam, cut the foam to shape and glue it together. Next, smooth the mold to form a mock-up mold, level it with putty and sanding, apply wax and make a matrix. Using the matrix or directly according to the shape, you can make the main frame of the seat from fiberglass or carbon fabric and resin. The process of manufacturing a car seat from composite materials is described in more detail in this article below.

DIY Sheet Metal Bucket Seat

The ergonomic design of the bucket seats makes them comfortable for fast driving and protects against lateral loads during sharp turns. They have pronounced lateral support.

The seat frame can be cut according to a template from a solid sheet of metal 1.5 - 2 mm (140 cm by 85 cm).

Print the template at actual size (seat_template). You can use several A4 sheets glued together and cut out in the right places. Next, place the template on a sheet of metal and outline it. Cut the sheet along the outlined outline. Now bend the metal and weld in the right places. At this point you have the basic seat frame.

If you don't have a metal bending machine, you can make small bend lines on the outside, then use the edge of a bench or workbench and press the metal. The cut will help bend the metal in straight lines.

Sports bucket seat dimensions

To make the seat more comfortable, you need to cut pieces of foam and glue them to the seat. For the top part and the back itself, 2.5 mm foam was used and for the sides and bottom part 5 mm.

To give your feet more support, you can make 3 layers of rounded foam.

The side foam is molded to make the top edge slightly rounded and make the top blend smoothly into the 2.5mm foam.

For the upholstery in this example, fabric of two colors was used (black and red). First, make templates according to the shape of the seat, then cut out the upholstery material using them, with extra space for seams.

How to cut and shape seat foam?

• You can get any shape of foam by cutting and sanding it and gluing different parts together.
• You can use a marker to mark cutting lines. You can draw a grid on the polyurethane foam, which will make it easier to make cuts of the correct shape (just like when learning to draw).
• Foam does not have a solid structure, so it is not easy to cut.
• The foam can be cut with a serrated bread knife. You need to move the knife in one direction and start a new pass over again. This way you can cut fairly long sections. When the cut size is small but has a complex shape, you need to cut through the foam with a knife, making short reciprocating movements.
• You can use an electric carving knife. An electric knife has 2 blades that cut in opposite directions at the same time. The opposing back-and-forth motion of the two blades cuts the foam rubber instead of being stretched by the movement of the blade.
• There are special cutters for foam material (Foam Rubber Cutter). This tool makes an even cut.

• A hot wire or hot wire foam cutter works well to cut foam, but is not very easy to use. The hot wire cuts foam very well. You can even make such a cutter yourself by searching for instructions on the Internet. The disadvantage of using hot wire to cut foam material is that polyurethane, when melted, releases very toxic fumes that poison the body.
• For the initial cuts, you can use a rough hacksaw blade with a hacksaw.
• You can soak the foam in water (if it is open cell foam) and freeze it. This will make it easier to cut. Just don't have a lot of ice. When using this method, you need to take into account that the polyurethane foam will dry within several days.
• Most places that sell foam material will also be able to cut the foam into the shape you need. You can make drawings with the required dimensions, take the foam with the drawings to one of the local furniture workshops and, for a fee, cut the foam to shape. In this case, you will receive high-quality work at an affordable price.
• With an electric knife (or other tool) you can only get a rough shape, which then needs to be refined by grinding with a machine, grinder or drill with an attachment.
• Using a sander or grinder with a grinding wheel requires experience, as the material is sanded quickly. A belt sander works well. The sander should lightly touch the foam material when processing. You can start sanding with a coarse abrasive, then move on to a less coarse one.
• When grinding and cutting, you need to do everything slowly. Foam is processed slowly.
• The resulting surface can be additionally leveled with 5 mm soft foam. It can be glued to the finished form with a special spray adhesive (3M spray adhesive), or combined with the upholstery.
• To keep both hands free while shaping the seat foam, tape it to your workbench. Also, when processing foam, it can be nailed to the workbench or screwed with long self-tapping screws. Once the nails or screws are removed, the holes will not be noticeable.
• As was written earlier, complex seat shapes can be achieved by gluing additional blocks of foam material to the main block, then the glue dries for a minute and the glued elements are pressed together. Use only special adhesive (for example, 3M spray trim adhesives) that is sprayed onto both parts of the material. So, for example, you can increase pronounced lateral support on the seat. Once bonded, the material can also be shaped by cutting and sanding.
• Aliexpress sells ready-made blanks of soft seat parts, already cast to a standard shape, which can be modified to fit a specific seat.
• Before sewing and installing the upholstery, you need to test the seat. Take at least 30 minutes to sit and perhaps identify any uncomfortable areas that need some work to make your body comfortable.

Seat design and ergonomics

• To ensure that the driver and passenger do not experience discomfort, the seat design is developed using the basic principles of ergonomics. The design of the seats should be developed taking into account long journeys, so that the person does not get tired due to an uncomfortable posture. Prolonged exposure to improperly supported posture by sitting leads to excessive static loads on parts of the body, causing a feeling of discomfort. Front car seats are designed to support your hips, buttocks, lower back, upper back and head.
• The main elements of a car seat are the backrest, the lower part of the seat and the headrest. These components are made from foamed polymer to provide rider comfort. The headrest can be adjusted, prevents damage to the head and neck during an accident, and also supports the head while riding.
• The bottom of the seat should be slightly concave. One of the functions of the seat bottom is to prevent the driver from slipping out of the seat belt during a frontal impact. For this reason, the bottom of the seat should be at an angle of 10 to 20 degrees to absorb the kinetic energy that the driver's mass produces during a crash. The length of the lower part of the seat is a significant factor in comfort for several reasons. First, if the seat bottom is too long, it will put pressure on the back of the sitter's legs, closer to the joints, an area that has a lot of superficial nerves and blood vessels. Pressure in this area will lead to local discomfort and limited blood flow to the legs. Secondly, a seat bottom cushion that is too long will pull the occupant forward, away from the seat back, making it impossible to provide adequate lumbar support. Third, a long bottom pad may limit leg splay interference with knee movement and may prevent postural changes that alter the distribution of pressure under the buttocks and thighs. To summarize, the length of the seat cushion, measured along the hip line, should not exceed 440 mm from the compressed seat back. For tall people, the seats can be equipped with a cushion with adjustable length (within 10 cm). The design of the lower seat cushion should allow easy posture changes so that the sitter can adjust the position of his pelvis to change the pressure distribution. If the seat cushion is too soft, changing the position within the driving limits will not significantly change the pressure distribution.
• The backrest should be as high as possible without obstructing the rear view for small drivers.
• The lumbar support should be tight, but flexible enough so that there is no discomfort from its pressure. Ideally, lumbar support should be adjustable. For low-back seats, fixed lumbar support should have minimal longitudinal curvature.
• When designing the seat, consider the weight and height of different people.
• Separately, it is worth mentioning the sports car seats. Their design is designed around the shape of the human body to provide better lateral support and weight distribution that helps the driver handle stress and stay in the seat when cornering. The sports seats have special openings for 3, 4 or 5 point seat belts to increase safety in extreme driving conditions. These seats have a reduced weight compared to standard ones. They are universal and technically can be installed on any car.

Polyurethane foam (polyurethane foam)

Polyurethane foam has been used in car seats for over 30 years. There are different technologies for making this material. Regardless of the technology by which the foam is made, its characteristics of hardness and density are of greater importance. The durability of the seat and its comfort depend on these characteristics.

Simply put, polyurethane foam is produced by the reaction of polyols and diisocyanates. Both products are derived from crude oil. A series of additives are also necessary to produce high quality polyurethane foam. Different additives are needed depending on the area of ​​application of the foam.

Polyurethane foam is most often used as the upholstery of car seats due to the design freedom that this material allows. Also because it provides the required comfort to the seats. Polyurethane foam is also widely used in the furniture industry.

Polyurethane is used in cars because it:

• Has light weight
• Helps reduce cabin noise. Excellent noise and vibration absorption.
• Wear-resistant. Polyurethane is not prone to corrosion and retains its properties even under difficult operating conditions.
• Polyurethane can be molded into any shape, so it is well suited for the manufacture of ergonomic, comfortable car seats.
• Polyurethane can be recycled (reused).

The design of the upholstered part of the seat has changed radically with the development of molding technology. In recent years, the density of polyurethane used in major products has been reduced by 30 to 40 percent, but the mechanical properties remain the same.